WANGECHI MUTU
Chocolate Nguva, 2016
Bronze
10 x 16 x 14 inches (25.4 x 40.6 x 35.6 cm)
Edition of 9 and 3 AP
Co-published by Carolina Nitsch & Elisabeth Ross Wingate
MUT-0001
Inquire

Mutu’s work involves developing and expanding a personal myth-making which combines her childhood experiences and memories from Kenya as well as her own journey through various cultures and experiences. This sculpture is based on the tradition of coastal East African Nguva or water women. These mythical beings wander restless and vicious and are told in stories to have pulled men from their boats, drowning them in the water. Their fictions stand in stark contrast to the Hans Christian Anderson/Disney versions that perpetuates contemporary Western society and it is this difference that Mutu wishes to draw attention.